Who is the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition?

Our mission is to reverse the trend of mass incarceration in Colorado. We are a coalition of nearly 7,000 individual members and over 100 faith and community organizations who have united to stop perpetual prison expansion in Colorado through policy and sentence reform.

Our chief areas of interest include drug policy reform, women in prison, racial injustice, the impact of incarceration on children and families, the problems associated with re-entry and stopping the practice of using private prisons in our state.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

It's better to know where people are. If you start taking away the only place that homeless people have because of their criminal record, they will go underground. That does not serve public safety.

Globeville residents are up in arms after discovering that nearly 100 registered sex offenders are listing a nearby homeless shelter as their address.

The large concentration of men with myriad sex crimes on their records is only half of their worry.

Another 62 men the registry identifies as "whereabouts unknown" listed the Salvation Army Crossroads Shelter as their home.

The city's online registry is driving some of the fear.

Police said the number of unaccounted registered sex offenders from the shelter just north of downtown is cumulative and that about 15 are currently missing.

But the damage is done.

"We're concerned about where everybody is located," said Paulette Hirsh, president of the Globeville Civic Association No. 1.

"We have a whole bunch that are supposed to be registered there," but their whereabouts are unknown, she said.

Salvation Army Major Neal Hogan is also disputing the number of registered sex offenders that the city's registry identifies as currently living at the shelter, 1901 29th St., though police insist that number is accurate.

"Every time we have reviewed our numbers, we only have at any one time between 30 and 40," Hogan said. "Currently, we only have 30 registered sex offenders."

Homeless people should absolutely have a place to go. However, if they are sex offenders, they should also follow the law and keep their whereabouts known. No one in this neighborhood is trying to take away Crossroads. What they are trying to do is make it painfully obvious how little anyone cares about sex offenders disappearing. These sex offenders are in our neighborhood, list Crossroads as their address then disappear BACK into our neighborhood. If this were happening next door to you, you would be worried, as well.